Decimal Dewey System Libraries Books Related Assigned Science

The "Dewey Decimal System" is a "classification system" (a way of organizing materials or information) used by most libraries in the United States. The "eponymous" (named after someone) system was created by Melvil Dewey, an American librarian. When it was "originally" (for the first time) "issued" (released and made public) in 1876, it was just a four-page brochure. Since then, it has gone through 23 "editions" (published versions) and the most recent 2011 version is a four-"volume" (one of many related books, like encyclopedias) set.

Prior to the use of the Dewey Decimal System, libraries assigned permanent shelf locations to books, so their location in the library was based on when they were "acquired" (purchased or obtained) by the library. The Dewey Decimal System improved this by giving libraries a way to categorize and place books next to books on related topics.

In the Dewey Decimal System, each book is assigned a numerical code, which is displayed on the "spine" (the part of the book facing the person looking at stacked books on a bookshelf) of each book. There are 10 main "classes" (groups):

000 - General works, computer science and information

100 - Philosophy and psychology

200 - Religion

300 - Social sciences

400 - Language

500 - Pure science

600 - Technology

700 - Arts & recreation

800 - Literature

900 - History & geography

And these are "subdivided" (separated into smaller parts) "as follows" (in this way) in this example:

500 Natural sciences and mathematics

510 Mathematics

516 Geometry

516.3 Analytic geometries

516.37 Metric differential geometries

516.375 Finsler Geometry